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By Maricel V.
Cruz, Reporter
Calling it a
“cheap shot,” proadministration lawmakers on Friday slammed
lawyer Alan Paguia for his attempt to revive the “Hello, Garci”
controversy by filing a petition for the Commission on Elections to
investigate the alleged poll fraud involving former commissioner
Virgilio Garcillano.
Nationalist
People’s Coalition Reps. Benasing Maca-rambon of Lanao del Sur,
vice-chairman of the House Committee on National Defense and
Security, and Eduardo Veloso of Leyte, member of the Commission on
Appointments, also called Paguia’s petition as “out of order,”
since the Comelec is not the right venue to charge the President of
any alleged wrongdoing.
Macarambon
questioned the timing of Paguia’s filing of the petition
considering that he or any interested individual for that matter
should have filed a case against Garcillano when the “Hello, Garci”
tape became an issue in 2004.
“They had
all the chances to file the case against Garcillano since 2004 yet
they opted to use the ‘Hello, Garci’ scandal for trial by
publicity against President Arroyo. Obviously, they are now trying
to revive the issue as part of the opposition’s black propaganda
against the administration during the campaign to mar the
credibility of the administration coalition’s candidates,”
Macarambon said.
He said Paguia
seemed to have lost his legal acumen as a lawyer. “You don’t
file a case against the President in the Comelec but should take the
course of impeachment. But the “Hello, Garci’ issue is one of
the issues dismissed when the first and second impeachment
complaints were overwhelmingly junked by the House.”
As far as
Veloso is concerned, the “Hello, Garci” controversy is already a
dead issue, and to revive it now would be an “exercise in
futility.”
“It’s a
dead issue since the House is done with its probe into the
wiretapping case.”
Furthermore,
the “Hello, Garci” tape was not accepted as a credible evidence
in the impeachment complaints against the President.”
According to
Veloso, the flawed move of Paguia could explain why he had been
stripped of his lawyer’s license by the Supreme Court and still
indefinitely suspended. “His blind faith to Erap [Estrada] has
clouded his legal judgment. It is time for him to move on.”
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